There were few things that seemed more unlikely at the start of the basketball season than the University of Miami winning an ACC regular-season championship.
Not in a conference with traditional heavyweights like North Carolina and Duke and certainly not with the tortured basketball history of UM.
But there the Hurricanes (24-6, 15-3 ACC) were Saturday afternoon, cutting the nets down at the BankUnited Center after clinching first place in the ACC with a 62-49 victory over Clemson (13-17, 5-13) in the regular-season finale.
“It’s surreal,” said center Julian Gamble, one of five UM seniors playing their final home game. “It’s hard to describe. This is something we’ve all dreamed about. … What better night to do it than Senior Night, knowing this is the our last time playing in this gym. To go out and win a championship feels great.”
The outright regular-season championship is the first for the sixth-ranked Hurricanes. In 1999-2000, UM tied for the Big East regular-season title with Syracuse.
UM moved from the Big East to the ACC in 2004 in what was seen primarily as a football move. Most figured the Hurricanes would dominate the conference in football, but that never happened.
The chances that Miami would win an ACC title in basketball before it did so in football seemed extremely unlikely.
That possibility didn’t look any better at the start of this season, either. The Hurricanes opened with an exhibition game loss to St. Leo at home and then were drubbed by Florida Gulf Coast in the season’s second game.
“If we told you before the year that we were going to go 7-2 on the road in the ACC and 8-1 at home after we lost the exhibition game to St. Leo’s, you would have laughed your head off and said, ‘This guy is a fool,’ ” coach Jim Larranaga said. “And I am. I’m foolish enough to dream big dreams.”
UM turned things around following Christmas, winning 14 straight games and going nearly all of January and February without a loss. That run included a 90-63 rout of No. 1 Duke on Jan. 23, and the Hurricanes eventually surged to a program-best No. 2 ranking in the Associated Press Top 25.
Before February was over, Miami had clinched the top-seed in the ACC tournament that begins Thursday in Greensboro, N.C., but was unable to guarantee itself an outright regular-season title until Saturday after losing three of its previous four games.
The Hurricanes struggled early against Clemson before snapping a 25-25 halftime tie by going on a 13-3 run in the opening minutes of the second half. Senior Kenny Kadji led UM by registering a double-double with 23 points and 12 rebounds while point guard Shane Larkin hit a pair of consecutive 3-pointers in the second half after the Tigers had cut the Hurricanes’ advantage from 10 to six points.
The win gave UM 24 victories this season, tying a school record.
All of UM’s players and coaches as well as university president Donna Shalala were given a chance to cut a piece of the net after the game. Gamble admitted he struggled with the scissors he was handed.
“It’s my first time doing it,” Gamble pointed out.
Fellow senior Trey McKinney-Jones predicted that Gamble and the Hurricanes, who have a first-round bye in the ACC tournament and will play their opening game Friday against the winner of the No. 8 seed vs. No. 9 seed game, will get more practice.
“That’s not the last net I plan on cutting down,” McKinney-Jones said. “I think the sky’s the limit for us.”
Larranaga has cut many nets during his long and successful coaching career. But he got extra satisfaction Saturday.
“There’s some programs that do it like almost annually,” Larranaga said. “But we haven’t done that here. When you do anything for the first time, it’s very, very exciting.”
